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Based in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cornerstone Mapping is a small aerial
survey and mapping organization, prominent in the geomatics
community for providing specialized geospatial image data. The
company was formed in 2002 with a mandate to provide highresolution
digital imaging for integration with the burgeoning
GIS community in the company’s home state. With a multi-taskoriented
staff, the company successfully undertakes a variety of
projects, from corridor mapping, to environmental assessment, to
location-specific image acquisition, operating a single-engine Cessna
182 equipped with a turnkey DSS Digital Sensor System.
In the spring of 2005, the company was tasked with generating
accurate, orthorectified digital imagery for Lancaster County,
and for the cities of Norfolk, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, and
Lincoln. The imagery was required by several of the cities’ public
works departments, engineering and county assessors’ offices, as
well as the Lincoln Police Department and Lincoln Electric System.
Two different image scales would be required, six inch resolution
for the cities, to enable planimetric, hydrographic and infrastructure
details to be easily identified,
and one foot resolution
for the county.
GIS Airborne Survey
“I do all the flying for the company and the
pilot-only capability of the DSS has proved to
be very efficient and cost-effective.”
Aaron Schepers
Owner and Company President Cornerstone Mapping
To meet the project’s specific
requirements, Cornerstone
Mapping used the DSS,
designed for accurate, high resolution
image acquisition.
The company had been using
a similar imaging technology
with a GPS/IMU configuration
which had worked very well
for the projects previously
undertaken. However, expanding into applications requiring better
horizontal and vertical accuracies required a system that could
deliver a much improved product. The DSS system’s accurate
radiometry and medium-format digital imaging capability proved the
ideal technology for these types of projects.
With the requirement for leaf-off imagery the timelines were
tight, but with the all-digital approach to image acquisition, data
processing and final product delivery, the project was successfully
completed within the scheduled timeframe. The imagery was
captured over a five week period, April through early May, allowing the orthophotos to be delivered progressively,
and in the clients’ hands by the end of June.
All the cities were flown with a 45% forward
lap except for Hastings, which required stereo
coverage and a corresponding 60% overlap
for photogrammetric data capture generating
2’contour information. The DSS system’s direct
georeferencing capability was a key component in
the rapid data turnaround, being able to quickly
generate the orthophotos required.
The versatility of the digital imagery and its
compatibility with the various GIS systems
utilizing the data became readily apparent, with
the multiple applications required from a single
project. Power line planning and analysis, Public
Works municipal planning, in-cruiser imaging
technology for the police department’s mobile
crime unit, and the City of Lincoln’s web page,
all used the DSS image data for their specific
applications.
